Needle's twin
by xxxidrilxxx
Summary: The last person Arya expected to see after 4 years, was her long forgotten friend, Gendry Waters. The last thing she expected to see inside his forge was Needle. Or, it's twin. Wearing one of her many faces, Arya must try to buy the sword from the stubborn young man. Which is proving to be harder than she thought
1. Chapter 1

When Arya walked through the door, the first thing she saw, was Needle.

Or, Needle's twin.

There was a few things that were different, but it was almost identical.

Almost.

The second thing she noticed was that the young man that stood at the back of the forge was Gendry Waters.

She hadn't seen him in 4 years, which meant he was about 20.

He looked up from the sword in his hand and hammer in his hands. His blue eyes confirmed it. It was Gendry.

"You need something?" he asked as he set down his tools and walked towards her.

She had one of her many faces on, so Gendry was looking at an olive skinned red head, with too many freckles. He wouldn't recognize her in a million years.

Yet she still felt a shock of anxiety as he walked closer to her.

Perhaps it was just the shock of running into him. Now. After all these years.

She pulled her sword out and handed it to him.

"I need it sharpened."

Gendry inspected it, gazing up at her occasionally.

"It's a good sword."

"I didn't steal it, if that's what you're implying." Arya said as she turned away from him and walked up to Needle's twin.

Gendry exhaled and walked to the back at the room. It might have been a laugh, but Arya wasn't sure.

Arya fought the itch to reach out and grab the small, thin sword in front of her. "This is fine work." she called out over her shoulder.

"It's not for sale." Gendry said sourly, as he began to work on her sword.

Arya spun around to face him. "I'll offer you twice it's worth."

"It's not for sale." he repeated, never looking up.

Anger rose inside of her. _Still as stubborn as ever_.

Perhaps more, she thought.

She walked closer to him, feeling the thick heat of the forge stronger on this side of the room.

"Don't be stupid! Didn't you hear. I'm ready to give you whatever you ask for it. Times are tough. I'm sure you could use..."

"Didn't you hear? It's not for sale!" he cut her off.

_Stupid bull headed boy! _

_Man! _

_Man-boy. Men his age should have more sense._

Arya rolled her eyes at him and walked towards the cooler part of the room.

After a few minutes, Gendry joined her, with her sword.

"Service is on the house." he said, handing her the sword. "You should leave."

"I don't need your charity." she said pulling her coin bag free of her belt.

"Whatever you leave is going straight into the fire. I suggest you hand it to some orphan instead."

Arya wanted to scream! She could hit him. She could punch him unconscious!

She sighed sharply, and instead, she opened her coin bag and took out several coppers. More than his service's worth, and slammed them on the table, before she turned and walked out the door.

xxx

It was the dead of night when she returned to Gendry's forge. There was no moon out, which she was thankful for, so she snuck into the village easily.

She had eyed a window when she was inside earlier, which thankfully was on the other side of the room from where she'd spotted Gendry's bed.

Arya recalled he had always been a very heavy sleeper, and she leaned on that alone as she jumped in through the window.

The room was pitch black, and with no moon light coming from outside, she stood still until her eyes adjusted to the darkness.

Even so, she had to feel her way quietly across the room. Towards Needle's twin.

_Quiet as a shadow._

_Swift as a deer. _

_Quick as a snake._

She was almost there. Just a few feet away.

She wasn't stealing it. Not really. In it's place she would leave a decently heavy coin bag, which she hoped Gendry wouldn't be too proud to use.

Suddenly, she felt a hand around her arm spin her and pin her to a wall. A cold blade came under her throat.

"How come i knew you'd come and try to take the sword." he whispered, digging the dagger deeper against her skin.

"Perhaps you're not as stupid as you look." Arya said as she pressed her own dagger deeper against his side. His tight grasp on her loosened as soon as he felt it. He laughed, his hot breath fanning against her face.

"You haven't changed one bit... Arya."

There was a clatter behind them as her dagger slipped from her hand.

She shoved him away from her. She shook her head in disbelief.

"I don't know what you mean." she finally managed to whisper.

"Do you really think I'm stupid. You don't fool me Arya Stark. You never have."

"But... my face." she stuttered stupidly.

"Your face may not be yours. Your hair may be red. But you still walk the same, and act them same. Your eyes are still yours."

Arya suddenly felt like crying and she had no idea why. She pushed the tears back, but there was still a knot in her chest.

After so many years. After so many faces. After everything she had done. She had felt so far from home. So far from the person she was. She had been faceless, and nameless. She had been no one. She had even, finally, given up Needle. Slowly, the wolf dreams had stopped.

She had strayed so far from Arya Stark, that she thought she could never go back. She no longer had a right to.

But standing here, in front of an old, forgotten friend, It all came crashing down on her, like too much water.

And she was drowning.

"Gendry." she said his name. Then she began to laugh.

"Arya." he whispered, and she could hear the smile in his face.

She smiled at the sound of her name, although she doubted he could see in the dark. She couldn't even remember the last time anyone had spoken her name.

She couldn't remember when she had stopped calling herself Arya in her head.

"It's been so long." he said.

"It has." she whispered.

Gendry began walking through the darkness, going up to a chest and pulling something out. He suddendly appeared in front of her, with Needle's twin.

He felt for her hands, before putting the hilt in them.

"I thought it wasn't for sale."

"It's not. But it is yours. I made for you. After he took you. I didn't remember your Needle too well, but.."

"It's perfect." she said, and she surprised herself when she hugged him.

"Thank you Gendry." she whispered.

At first, he just stood there, his hands on her waist. But then he wrapped his arms around her, and he hugged her tightly.

And it felt good.

She had forgotten how good it felt to be hugged. She had forgotten everything, but it was all coming back to her now.

"We searched for days." he whispered against her ear, making her shiver.

His hugged tightened even more at the memory.

After what felt like minutes, he pulled away.

"Where are you staying tonight?"

"The forrest. Like always."

"You'll stay here tonight. Have something to eat in the morning, then you can be on your way again."

"You don't have to."

"Can't you ever do anything with out arguing?" he asked her as he headed towards the back of the room, to where his bed was at.

She laughed and followed.

He offered her a long sleeping shirt which she changed into in a corner, before slipping under the covers with him.

She had slept next to Gendry many nights years ago. But this was different. There was an awkwardness about it. Perhaps because they were older now, or because they had gone so long with out seeing each other.

The fact that the bed was so small wasn't too helpful, since it forced them to lie close.

She was thankful though. And for the first time in years, she gave herself into sleep feeling completely safe.


	2. Chapter 2

Gendry rolled over on the mattress, his hand searched the empty spot next to his. His eyes opened.

He sat up in a flash and looked around the room.

Arya was gone.

His eyes scanned the room for any sign of last night, but he found none.

_Had it all been a dream?_

He rubbed his eyes and crawled to the the edge of the bed.

There was nothing in the room that confirmed she had really been here.

Maybe he needed closure so much that he saw her in anyone that had even the slightest resemblance in appearance or character to Arya.

After all those years, he still needed to know she was alive. Dead. Whatever, just as long as he knew what she was.

He stood, angered, telling himseld he needed to forget the girl.

He was on his way out to the privy, when he saw it. The coin bag resting on his anvil.

At that moment he wasn't sure which he preferred.

Arya being a dream, or Arya being real and gone. Gone without a goodbye.

Gone with Needle's twin.

He walked up to the anvil. The bag looked full and heavy. No doubt more than the sword was worth.

He grabbed it, tightening his fist around it, ready to throw it against the wall.

"Arya!" he grunted through clenched teeth.

"Yes?"

Gendry spun around.

At the door, stood Arya, with two young conies in her hand.

Not the freckly red head from the day before. But the one he had met all those years ago. The one he had travelled with. The one he had lost.

She was taller now, and her figure betrayed her age.

She had lost some of the roundness on her face, and her hair was a long tangled mess.

But her eyes were the same. Her face still held that animation he had always found intriguing.

He realized he was just standing there, lips slightly parted. Looking like an idiot no doubt, so he cleared his throat and gave her his back, setting the bag down on the anvil.

"I went to find breakfast." she said as she set the small animals on the table at the front of the room.

"Oh. Thanks. I usually have breakfast with Lady Freya, at the Inn across the square."

"Oh . . . So you've settled down here." she said, walking to the door and looking out.

It was a small here. About the size of Acorn Hall, from what she remembered. There was the inn, and Gendry's forge. A few large, rather homely houses, and the stables, which surprisingly had a horses.

"After he took you . . . well, we searched for days. But had to returned when I became ill." Gendry said behind her.

"After that, I grew angry. I was angry at them for promising to protect you and deliver you, and breaking their promises. I was not the same and they could tell. When we crossed paths with an inn kept by a group of orphans, they left me behind. To take care of the children, they told me, but I knew it was a lie. I was simply not useful anymore. Not when I was as angry as I was."

Arya turned slowly to face him. He was closer than she expected, so her face came inches from him.

"I was angry at myself." he whispered down at her.

She had never been this close to Gendry before. Not like this. Not this still for her to appreciate his features.

He was very handsome, and she found herself grow conscious of their proximity. Of his eyes on her.

"Before i met you, my life was normal. I worked for Tobho Mott, and life was easy. But then Yoren came. I thought the Night's Watch would be just as easy."

He paused and took a step back, and Arya let go of a breath she had no idea she had been holding.

"But then I met you, and suddenly the Queen's after me, then Yoren was killed, and we were caught, and I nearly died in Harrenhal. We escaped, got caught again, and my life had never been so complicated before. All because of this little girl. This girl who was braver than anyone I had ever met before. Stubborn, and clever, and reckless..."

Arya blinked down, unsure of where this was leading to.

Gendry stepped towards her, once again inches from her face. He leaned down to look at her eyes.

"When you were gone, life became easy again. Simple. I wasn't running anymore. I wasn't hiding. I was doing what I love." he grabbed her shoulders. "But for some reason, I didn't want that anymore. I was safe, yet something was missing."

He whispered the last and she looked away, biting down on her lip, afraid of what he would say next.

He felt her body tense and immediately he let go of her shoulders, and looked down at the floor. There was a long, awkward silence as they both stood there. Silent.

He had build up to this, yet now he felt deflated, and restless to get out of the room and away from Arya.

"We better get these to Lady Freya." he said and he took the rabbits by their ears and left through the door, and across the small square towards the inn, leaving Arya standing there alone.

"I missed you too Gendry." she whispered to the empty room, before walking out of the forge, towards the inn.

**AN**

**I'm not sure where this is leading yet. But I had this need to add this. There might be a few chapters left, or it might turn into a huge long story. I'm not sure yet. It depends on where Arya and Gendry take me, and if I'll be able to juggle "that Stark girl" and this one, if it were to become a bigger story.**


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